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Bordering on Greatness
Think
of it as the underwear of the garden --- support without
necessarily calling attention to itself. Landscape
edging should offer definition and form, promising easier
maintenance, while never upstaging the home’s architecture or
the garden plan. It should strengthen the garden’s design and character, not
weaken or take away from it.
The choice of a specific bed border can lend the affluent
air of a formal French garden or the relaxed sigh of a casual
English cottage garden. Or it might blend in so well as not to be noticed at all.
But the wrong edging material will diminish the aura of
even the most beautiful garden.
Purpose:
Borders routinely are an
afterthought of the garden. The
beds are marked and dug, soil is amended, plants are added and THEN we think,
“What will we contain it with?” or “How will we keep the grass out?”
These are excellent questions, but should be asked prior to outlining a
bed. The bed shape cannot be
properly dealt with until the border material is decided.
Certain edgings have greater presence and give more visual weight than
others; some prohibit easy mowing; still another might retain or lose moisture
more quickly or appeal to critters (such as snakes and spiders); others make
it difficult to produce soft curves in the outline. By determining what purposes your edging must meet, many
regrets and expenses will be avoided later on.
Often, a landscaping border can be dual purpose.
A wide flagstone edging may be used as a walk. Railroad ties hold not only plant material, but also keep
slumping soil away from the driveway. A
bull rock border can help re-direct rain run-off. If serious drainage or erosion issues need to be addressed,
however, it is best to consult a professional.
Many do-it-yourself homeowners create potential problems by changing
the grade or natural slope, damming water and bringing it toward the house.
Materials:
Sometimes the only edging needed for a
garden bed is none! By
“ditching” the bed’s edge at an angle AWAY from the bed, the
lawnmower’s tire can be run along the shallow trench, cutting the grass edge
shorter and lessening maintenance chores.
Some lawn grasses are very aggressive, however, and may insist on
crawling past the trench and into beds. Such
a case warrants a physical border, not simply a visual one. Materials used for
a landscaping edge are limited only by one’s imagination and drawn from a
number of sources, both natural and man-made or even a combination of both.
Some traditional edging materials are poured concrete, concrete block, treated
wood or wood strips, landscape timbers, railroad ties, brick, stone, sheet
metal, steel, and plastic. But
this is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few of the more popular
materials. One creative lady
recycled her glass bottles and buried them half-way as edging in her herb
garden. Another fellow used the
wooden disks he sliced from a fallen tree in his yard as the border of his
flowerbed. And plant material,
such as monkey grass (Ophiopogon
japonicus) is also a favorite among Houstonians.
Cost can be a huge factor
in determining which edging material to use.
With prices running from free (ditching) to hundreds or even thousands
of dollars (mortared brick wall), it should be a well-thought out decision,
not a spur-of-the-moment, the-in-laws-are-coming-for-a-visit kind of decision. Find an element of your home’s architecture you would like
to play up and look for a substance that would enhance the style.
Then try it on. Buy a few pieces of the stone you are thinking of using and
play with it. Will it look better
stacked or flush as a mowing strip? Is
the color going to clash with the house paint?
Prop up bricks to imitate what a portion of the brick retaining wall
might look like and leave it for several days.
Does it cause too much attention to be focused near the street?
Should it be three courses (thicknesses) or only two?
(When in doubt, it is usually advisable to go for LESS rather than
MORE.) And don’t spend big
bucks on edging material when you plan to use a low, sprawling plant right
behind it. Within a few months,
you probably won’t even see the
edging. A decision should be
firmed up about what plants will be used before determining the proper border
for a bed.
Style:
A Japanese style home will look
ridiculous with a white picket fence as its landscaping border just as a New
England saltbox home will be at odds with a raked, formal rock garden in the
front yard. You do not have to
necessarily repeat the exact material used in your home, but it should
compliment the existing structure.
If you are set on using stone with your saltbox, try using stone blocks
that are dry laid with moss or creeping thyme crawling through the crevices. The
WAY you use a material can be as important as what material is used.
Look for books and magazines that show similar home styles and note how
they have addressed the landscape edging.
No matter how beautiful,
well-planned and expensive the plant material in a garden, skimping on the
landscape edging can ruin the desired effect.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be costly, but a garden border should
fit into the total design of the layout.
Whether it blends, ties in other elements, or gives the garden a
specific character, the right border can bring completion to a landscape as
nothing else can.
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